


Extra Scenes - The Canmores

by Aurum_Ann



Series: The Canmores [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Best Friends, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Sad and Happy, Snippets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23121793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurum_Ann/pseuds/Aurum_Ann
Summary: Extra scenes for the Canmores series. Can be read separately.Read about Alice's life before meeting the twins, about Emma and her friends doing mischievous stuff, about family and magic and love.
Relationships: Alice & Dave, Alice & Grandma Henna, Alice & Thomas, Dave & Thomas, Emma & Dave & Thomas
Series: The Canmores [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654123





	1. The very beginning

Henna Canmore sighed, stretching her back. She had just finished her nightly decaffeinated hot chocolate mug. Standing, she rinsed her mug, and climbed up the stairs to her room. The woman was just drying her face off after brushing her teeth, when the wind chimes started to tinkle.

The wind chimes were her favourite charms, because they were easy to make, beautiful, and elegant. The entrance to her house was full of them. Obviously, they weren’t normal decoration: they were enchanted to move if someone uninvited got too close.

The Canmore grabbed her weapon, and silently made her way downstairs. She wasn’t scared, her chimes weren’t her only protection, and she was a fairly good fighter, but caution was always better than conflict.

She sneaked behind the door and focused. There were sometimes she wished she was a full-blooded canmore… times like this, when it took way more effort and concentration for her to be able to do the simple things. Still, she could do it. She looked through the door.

“What?”

Outside there was a couple she knew very well: her daughter and her son-in-law. She hadn’t seen them in a long time… Right after the marriage, her daughter and she had a fight. They got angry. Her daughter decided to move away, and never talked to her ever again.

Her daughter was now at her doorstep.

“Mother,” she greeted, with a nod. She had always been so serious!

Henna felt her face form a smile, “Come in; I can brew some tea for us all-”

“We’re not here to stay.”

Her smile faded. “Oh,” her hands fell to her sides, “I see. What can I help you with, then?”

Her daughter raised her chin, causing her blond braids to wave behind her. “We had a baby. We brought her here to you.”

Henna blinked, surprised, but happy. She wished she could’ve been there for her daughter during her pregnancy, but this was okay. She was been allowed to meet her granddaughter!

Her son-in-law moved to the car. He opened the back door and took a baby seat out. He put it on the floor, by Henna’s feet, and said, “There she is. She was born on the 22nd. Very healthy.”

Henna crouched down to look at her granddaughter. She was mesmerized. The baby was so small! She was sleeping, so she couldn’t see her eyes, but the little hair she had was blond like her mother’s. She was gripping her blanket. That was good – canmores had to be strong to survive. She gently ran a finger over her granddaughter’s face. She was already in love.

She looked up when she saw a baby bag being laid.

“Here you have all her stuff”, her son-in-law told her, “and some formula, too.”

“We have her portable crib in the back”, her daughter said.

Henna gulped. She did not understand what was going on, but she felt it couldn’t be good. “What exactly are you doing?”

“I told you, mother, we brought her here to you. We can’t keep her.”

“What?” the woman whispered, sharply, “Why? What’s your problem?”

Her daughter raised her chin in defiance, “I told you, mother, we can’t keep her. She’s too much like you, a canmore.”

“You’re a canmore!”

“Only in blood!” the young woman scowled, “I’ve told you countless times I am not into this-this crazy life you like. And Mike agrees. We just wanted a normal life, a normal family.”

“The baby took after you, Mrs. Henna.” Her son-in-law explained, “A truly talented canmore in a family of diluted blood. We don’t want any involvement with that world-”

“It’s the same world, Michael”, Henna glared at him. She was growing angrier and angrier by their behaviour.

“It doesn’t matter. We’ve made our decision. You’re a canmore, she’s a canmore; She’ll be way happier living here with you.”

Henna grit her teeth, “What makes you think I’ll take her? I have my post to watch over.”

“Give her to the council, then”, her daughter dismissed her with a waving hand, “They’ll place her somewhere. The School, maybe.”

The couple seemed to decide their talk was over and moved to the car. Michael took a moment to take the baby’s crib out of the car. “Do you want help to bring it inside, Mrs. Henna?”

The woman in question hardened her face, “It’s Mrs. Canmore to you. And no, I don’t need your help. I am quite certain you have never been more capable than me.”

The man shrugged. He got in the car, but before he could close the door, Henna asked, “Have you named her?”

It was her daughter who answered, with a frown, “We thought of Alice, because of Mike’s human mother. But we never got to name her, because, well, she isn’t part of the family, is she?”

“It seems to be like that.”

They left.

Henna looked down to the little baby, all bundled up, even though it was summer. She couldn’t keep her. She was the last protector before the city. Her position was valuable, and she could not afford to mess up, or be distracted. Lifting the baby seat up, she decided she needed to exactly what her daughter had said. The baby would go to the council. With a decisive nod, she held up the crib too. She figured she couldn’t leave the baby in the study. It was too messy.

***

After changing into her pyjamas, the woman breathed deeply. “What a mess”, she grumbled to herself. Very slowly, with as much care as she could, she lifted the baby from her seat. The little girl held onto her blanket so tight, it came along. Holding her breath, she made it to put her down on the crib – and paused. Her granddaughter snuggled closer to her, so small and delicate. And all alone. Henna couldn’t help but remember the School, where she was cared for and raised as a canmore, taught diligently from birth up to her fifth birthday, when she was taken in by her parents, who showed her what a family truly was.

Henna sighed in defeat, smiling a little at her momentaneous stupidity. Of course she couldn’t give her granddaughter to the council! She could definitely make it work. There were daycares. There were a few favours to be used up. It all would be fine.

She found herself rocking from side to side. With a low chuckle, she finally put her granddaughter down on her crib, covering her up with the blanket she loved so much. She caressed the little cheeks with a finger.

“You’re so small… I can already tell you’ll be powerful.” The lady whispered to the sleeping baby, “You come from a noble family, Alice Canmore. A powerful family. You’re safe here.”

Henna blinked, then walked over to her bedside stand. From the bottom drawer, she took out a dreamcatcher. Silently tying it to the crib, she willed it to protect her baby girl.

“Sleep tight, my little Alice.”


	2. Be careful with what you say - part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henna Canmore remembers her childhood, in particular the time she messed up and got stuck in a time loop.

One of the first things Henna taught her granddaughter Alice was how to behave around magical creatures. That was because, as a canmore, she was able to see and sense them, and they were able to sense her as well. Most of the time it was not a problem, since canmores have the reputation of being inherently good fighters, warding off evil inclined beings. Still, it was not a good idea to think that they would be completely safe.

Henna would know.

When she was eleven, she and her friend Drew had been in a tight spot. It was luck that saved them. And all because she ignored what she had been taught and decided to talk to an imp.

Well, no, that wasn’t what started it. The thing is that Henna’s family lived in a canmore community, in the middle of a big forest. The adults all took turns to teach the children how to become either a warrior or a healer, and it was good and fun… except Henna had lived in the School for the first five years of her life, and, there, children start learning much earlier than at the community she lived. At first, having no training or lessons was fun, but having to repeat what she already knew with all the community children was extremely boring!

Henna thought that she was sufficiently good at what they were trying to teach and that it meant she could miss classes, and often got into trouble because of it. It made her angry that no one seemed to understand. Not even Drew and he was her best friend!

She stomped off to the forest, after her dad – who had gotten teacher duty that day – announced a bathroom break. “He’s so annoying! Doesn’t he already know I can do more than that kata?”

“Parents problems?”

Henna looked up, hand flying to her side, to touch her dagger. It was an imp, sitting on a branch. One needed to be careful around them because they only have trouble on their agenda, but this one seemed to be tranquil. She shrugged, “So what if it is?”

“Parents can make our day pretty boring.” He answered, with his nasal voice.

Henna couldn’t but agree. It looked like the imp knew what he was talking about. “It isn’t only my parents, it’s everybody! It’s like everyday is the same, with how slow those lessons go.”

“And every day is like that?”

“Yeah…” she sighed.

Henna was looking down, frowning to her feet, so she missed the mischievous grin that grew on the imp’s face. The little wrinkled creature hummed, “I’ve got it.”

The girl raised an eyebrow, confused, “Don’t you mean ‘I get it’?”

The imp waved his hands around, lazily, and vanished with a puff. Henna huffed and made her way back to her village. The rest of her day went by as normal as any. It took her a while to figure out just how much that imp had messed with her.

The next day, Henna was waiting for the daily classes to start with the other children, when her dad arrived and greeted the class. She thought it was unusual, because he had taught them the day before, but said nothing. Then, after they had run and stretched, Henna’s father asked them to go by the basic movements. This is seriously boring, the girl thought, we did it all yesterday!

She observed the class and was not impressed. Luca even dropped his wooden sword, just like he had done 24 hours before! It was getting ridiculous, how the children there were different from the children at the School.

Then, Henna’s father gathered the group to give some instructions. “Alright, children, today we are going to learn something new. A kata.” It caught her attention. If they were going to learn one after the other, then maybe it wouldn’t be so boring, she thought. “Now, please try to copy me. I’ll do it twice so don’t worry if you don’t get it at once”

And then he proceeded to teach them exactly the same kata he had taught them the last morning! Henna couldn’t believe it! Worse: her classmates were acting like they had never seen it! She was so frustrated she could only stand there, surrounded by idiots flailing their arms about, and suffer in silence.

Then, Louise tripped over her own feet, behind her, and took them both down.

Just like the day before.

And then it clicked.


	3. Be careful with what you say - part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part II for Be careful with what you say.

Henna was behaving in such an odd way it was impossible not to notice. Drew made sure to keep an eye on her at all times. It wasn’t too hard, since she was his best friend. He just needed to stay a little bit closer to her. For a good reason.

His friend was, for a lack of better words, bright. She was popular, she was beautiful, she was smart, and she was the best warrior-in-training they had. She could smile away sadness, he swore. But Henna was also extremely emotive and was prone to being careless and getting in trouble. Who could blame him for worrying if she acted weird?

Drew followed her around all day. He practiced sword katas, he ate next to her, and he joined her for history class even though he normally would take arts instead. Henna seemed not to notice him until the class ended, when he raised his arm to answer a question. She looked at him with her eyes so wide he knew there was something going on.

“Are you okay, Hen?”

“Yes”, she drawled on, hesitation on her face. “Have you finally seen how interesting history is?”

“Of course.” Drew tried to make his voice sound dry. He could respect his history, but he wasn’t about to spend anymore hours studying it than he needed. Henna owed him one for that afternoon, already.

Henna smiled at him, sheepishly. “You know me too well. I’m fine, though.”

Drew put on a blank face. “Sure. Let me know if you need anything.”

His friend grinned and bent over to put her notebooks away with such focus he knew not to leave her alone for long. He shuddered when the smell of fire invaded his memories. Henna was growing up to be fantastic, but she was a disaster machine sometimes. Something was wrong, it was her fault, and she wanted to fix it – and she would need help.

Drew’s confidence in his diagnostic didn’t waver with the passing of time. He stood by Henna’s side as they did their chores. He followed her for dinner. He walked her home. He crouched down next to the flowering bushes in her garden. And waited.

Sure enough, about an hour or so later, he got to watch his friend’s shadow sneaking out of her window. When she started towards the forest, Drew could only sigh, letting an amused smile grow on his face. He had been right.

Sliding out of the shadows, he followed her. He could tell when Henna heard him – and how he envied her senses! – because her shoulders relaxed slightly.

“I don’t remember ordering an escort for tonight?”

“You didn’t.” Drew pointed his chin up, daring her to send him back. “I figured it would be too bad if you died being dumb on your own. It’s not very heroic, you know?”

Henna didn’t send him back.

She thanked him with a smile. “I suppose it is always better to have someone smart around when you’re hunting.”

The boy squinted up at his friend. She was dodging around the point. Whatever she did must have really embarrassed her.

“What did you do this time?”

Her face burst in red. Drew snorted. He had got it right again.

“It really wasn’t my fault!” Henna whined, as they walked further into the darkness of the forest. “I was angry, talking to myself, and an Imp overheard! I-”

“An Imp? We’re hunting an Imp?” Drew stopped walking in surprise.

Henna grimaced. “It made me relive today. I want to get it over with before it turns into a time loop.”

Drew nodded, “It’s not my favourite beauty routine.”

They shared a smile. Henna owed him big time, but that was fine. She never failed to compensate for her messes, and Drew could admit he kind of liked to go in those adventures with her. He wanted to see how the time loop thing would go, too. He decided to go along with her plan. He was several meters away from bed already.

The children searched under rocks and inside hollow trees, but they couldn’t find neither the Imp nor his trace – Imps leave a rather odd magic impression wherever they pass, and that is the kind of thing canmores are naturally sensitive to. They had to go back to the village empty handed.

Drew held Henna’s hand to call her attention. It was too dark in the forest for him to make out her face, despite his enhanced vision, but he didn’t need to see it to know she was frustrated.

“If today repeats again, you will come to me earlier, and will have more time.”

She tightened her hold on his hand, and nodded, but it wasn’t an agreement. Drew held a sigh and prayed that he acted sooner the next day.

Henna was behaving in such an odd way it was impossible not to notice. Drew made sure to keep an eye on her at all times. It wasn’t too hard, since she was his best friend. He just needed to stay a little bit closer to her. For a good reason. Henna was prone to in trouble. Who could blame him for worrying if she acted weird?

Drew followed her around all day. He practiced sword katas, he ate next to her, and he decided to join her for history class even though he normally took arts instead. Surprisingly, Henna grabbed him by the wrist and turned on her heels towards the forest.

“Don’t ask,” she interrupted him as he opened his mouth to speak. “It is hard enough to explain… I have a problem. I need your help. We’re hunting an Imp.”

Drew felt his jaw drop. Leave it to Henna to mess with one of the trickiest creatures to deal with. Still, he could feel how tense she was and kept his scolding to himself. Henna knew it was a stupid thing to do. He would be a good friend and help her.

“What kind of problem are we talking about?” he asked instead.

Henna turned a little to look at him, “A time loop. It’s the third time I live today.”

Drew was mildly impressed, “How do you keep getting into these situations?”

“Eleven years of age and I still don’t know”, she chuckled.

The young canmores walked around, getting deeper and deeper into the forest, following a faint magical trace. Henna explained she met the Imp a little before the end of their morning practice, and the trace had completely disappeared by night. They needed to hurry and find the Imp before he went too far.

Soon enough, they got to a clearing that sparkled from a distance. The area was covered in colourful stones and, curiously, spoons, and it shone with reflected sunlight. In the middle of it all, lay the Imp, face down. Henna quickly took her dagger and ran to attack him.

The Imp jumped out of the way, with a shrill laugh. Drew took his own dagger out, then, and joined his friend in the clearing. “You used your magic without making a deal first, Imp.”

The Imp smiled wide, showing thin pointy teeth. “Ah, but it was a gift!”

“I don’t want it!” Henna shouted.

The children watched as the Imp blinked lazily like a cat, “No take backs.”

Henna puffed up her cheeks, ready to explode or attack, she didn’t often think twice, but Drew lifted his hand and cleared his throat. The girl frowned at him, huffing, as he walked closer to the Imp, dagger down by his side.

“I’ll be asking one more time: lift your magic from her.”

“No, thank you”, the Imp stuck out his tong, “Don’t wanna.”

“Why?”

“Because there are too many of you warriors,” the Imp nodded, bobbing so low it looked as if he was bowing. “At least this way it is controlled.”

Henna opened her mouth to snap back at him, but Drew smiled at her, and she knew to let him handle it.

“What if we made a deal, me and you?” Drew asked, pursing his lips.

The Imp stood up to his full height, that wasn’t so much, and squinted. “Are you offering to get rid of a warrior, warrior?”

Drew took a deep breath, ignoring how his friend’s wide eyes, and nodded, “I am. Then we will have one less warrior and you will lift your magic from Henna.”

“Very well. We have a deal” grinned the Imp. “Who are you removing?”

Drew smiled, and lifted his dagger, showing it to the Imp hilt first, “Me. I give up on being a warrior.”

The Imp was delighted, and took the dagger, making it into fine dust and blowing it away. Henna whimpered, hands over her mouth, and Drew felt a bit bad. But the Imp was already going away – they never stay in the same place for long – and the shiny stones were puffing away, and it meant he had done his part too.

Henna rushed to her friend, hugging him with tears threatening to spill. “Why did you do it? Why would you ever do it?”

Drew winced, pushing her back a little to see her face. “It’s fine, Hen, really.”

The boy held Henna’s hand and started following the path back home, softly explaining his actions, to calm his friend down.

“I’ve been talking to my parents about the Claiming. About what to choose. I know I’ve been training with you all this time, and I know I’m good at it… But to do it for the rest of my life? I don’t know. I didn’t know, that is. Now, I only have one option.”

Henna searched his face for any lie or doubt, but he knew she was only feeling guilty. She had to understand he was serious. He wouldn’t ever hurt her like this, about something so important.

After some time, Henna nodded, accepting his change of heart, and looked down. “I wish you had told me, then. But I’m glad you’re okay. I’m sorry”

“It’s fine”, he squeezed her hand. “I’ve got your back”

Drew smiled at her and waited until she raised her head to smile back. They were fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am accepting prompts for this series.


	4. Fanart!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By Willy, my middle sibling!  
> Here is a link for their stories: https://www.spiritfanfiction.com/perfil/princessraimbow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Young Henna and Drew Canmore


End file.
